Not enough information in the OP. For many years I was only a competitive distance runner. I certainly was cardiovascularly fit....but I certainly had no upper body strength, core strength or definition. So if he meant that being a runner or cyclist doesn't make you all around fit, he might have a point.

I don't think he's right about rowers....that's both cardiovascular and also uses upper and lower body strength. Most rowers I know are toned hotties... :-)

I believe there are 3 components of overall good physical fitness, strength, endurance/stamina, and flexibility.

I wouldn't listen to a personal trainer who makes these types of claims unless he has a PhD in the exercise science field and has done extensive research which has been published in a reputable scholarly journal. Otherwise he's just trying to promote his business by feeding off the gullable.

Recent studies have shown that running has additional bad effects other than just the impact exercise. They show that there is permanent cardiac damage in those folks who do it too infrequently and too strenuously. I.e., the weekend warrior. Experts decided to study the effects of running on cardiac health due to the disproportionate number of sudden deaths that occur in that group. What they found was that there was a trend among a certain group of intermittent runners to have substantial cardiac damage.

Most "experts" now think that HIIT, coupled with resistance training and a healthy diet, is a better approach.

The lesson to take away is consistency, and increasing load, as opposed to sudden load. High impact exercise has a number of bad effects. HIIT looks like it's not only more effective, but, less damaging.

Your personal trainer is up on the latest science, and, is more right than wrong in what he told you. If you want strong bones, less muscle loss, and want to increase your metabolism as you grow older, you need resistance training and HIIT. Straight cardio won't do that. Resistance training also helps with your insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, to a greater extent than just the cardio.

Lots of folks will tell you they're fit, when, in fact, they really aren't.

My fitness level isn't where I'd like it to be here lately. The North Texas air is horrible (see the movie "Gasland") and I've been down with allergies as have many folks here.

Fitness is subjective.

Compared to a guy from the fat cart at Walmart, the guy who rows is fit. Compared to the guy who does stairs twice a day, eats perfectly, and lifts, too, the guy who just rows isn't as fit and doesn't enjoy the additional benefits of weight training, although, arguably, rowing is a singular form of resistance training (water).

Someone who runs, but, has a high fat diet, and a cholesterol of 220, arguably is in trouble for a cardiac problem.

Recent studies have shown that running has additional bad effects other than just the impact exercise. They show that there is permanent cardiac damage in those folks who do it too infrequently and too strenuously. I.e., the weekend warrior. Experts decided to study the effects of running on cardiac health due to the disproportionate number of sudden deaths that occur in that group. What they found was that there was a trend among a certain group of intermittent runners to have substantial cardiac damage.

Most "experts" now think that HIIT, coupled with resistance training and a healthy diet, is a better approach.

The lesson to take away is consistency, and increasing load, as opposed to sudden load. High impact exercise has a number of bad effects. HIIT looks like it's not only more effective, but, less damaging.

Your personal trainer is up on the latest science, and, is more right than wrong in what he told you. If you want strong bones, less muscle loss, and want to increase your metabolism as you grow older, you need resistance training and HIIT. Straight cardio won't do that. Resistance training also helps with your insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, to a greater extent than just the cardio.

Cycling and rowing are not high impact exercises.And the potential heart damage out of irregular intense cardiac activity is only linked to irregular intense cardiac activity, not he way you achieve it. Irregular HIIT work will also damage heart.

Low intensity cardio work seems the best to promote heart health, and to go from untrained cardiac muscle to solid one.

Once your cardiac muscle is 'fit' enough, then, and only then, using more demanding forms of cardio work, like HIIT, leads to important benefits.

It is widely recognized that individuals can respond quite differently to a given intervention, such as drugs, diet, or exercise. For instance, there are considerable individual differences in improvement in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max; measure of aerobic endurance capacity) with aerobic training.

Studies conducted with young or older adults have typically reported gains in VO2max ranging from almost 0% to 50%, even though all the subjects completed exactly the same training program under close supervision. Scientists had previously assumed that these variations result from differing degrees of compliance with the training program, i.e., good compliers have the highest percentage of improvement and poor compliers show little or no improvement. However, it is now clear that even when there is full compliance with the program, substantial variations occur in the percentage improvements in VO2max values of different people. The same principle is also thought to apply to other physical activity-related phenotypes, including differences in response of the various risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Moreover, previous studies conducted with identical twins have suggested that heredity plays a major role in determining to what degree the body adapts to an intervention such as an exercise training program. All these data were available by the late 1980s primarily as a result of the research of C. Bouchard and his colleagues at Laval University in Quebec City when the planning for the HERITAGE Family Study began.

Yep. Some folks respond better to certain stimulus than others, but, you also read studies that say it's related to activities.

Genetics, I believe, plays a huge role. I'm 5'5", and, even at 17 years old, had the fifth highest strength index in my high school and weighed a lean 175. I grew up eating dense, solid, food, though, and didn't eat many sweets nor fried food, but, I ate plenty of it. All that being said, there's some of us who look at weights, or the buffet, and grow like weeds...but, we eat, and we don't over train, and we stay at it. I look at weights and make gains, and, I've been studied for it, but, there's folks better at it than me. I've met some amazingly gifted folks over my years.

I think that if money was no object I could realistically pack 250#, because 230# is fairly easy. That puts guys like me into a different spot than most folks...atypical. Thing is, would I want to be 250? That's a lot to be packing around.

All that being said, many folks fail to make the gains they should because they don't eat, or over train, or train improperly. Few folks take the time to understand the science of The Human Machine.

It'll be interesting to see how pharmacy factors into all of it. Soon, there will be a chemical way to turn off fat storage, etc., and eat junk.

United Health Care commissioned a study that came out last week that predicted that 50% of all Americans will be diabetic by 2020. Pharmacy / drugs is a huge business, but, of course, the wealthy want to control it, and make billions on the backs of sick folks. Ironically, we criminalize certain behaviors that are reasonably healthy / not so bad, and allow folks to eat themselves to death.

But you will get better results from 8 minutes of cycling/rowing @ 170% VOmax than from 1 hour of cycling/rowing @ 90% VOmax. Trick is to work in 20sec/10sec rest work intervals. So spinning classes and what not are a bit of a waste of time. The things that people usually call cardio work.

well this is another personal trainer saying that ANY form of cardio can make you fit and that corporate cocksucker personal trainer just wanted you to buy sessions from him, corporate personal trainers can't be trusted because they are greedy assholes who only care about moneyany form of cardio can make you fit...its all about how hard you push yourself and progress from session to session

Sounds entirely like bullshit to me. No doubt he is also busy convincing the feeble minded that, in order to get fit, they need a personal trainer to kick their asses round the park for 50 bucks an hour. (No offence to personal trainers who actually know what they are talking about.)

Runninchlt saidI believe there are 3 components of overall good physical fitness, strength, endurance/stamina, and flexibility.

I wouldn't listen to a personal trainer who makes these types of claims unless he has a PhD in the exercise science field and has done extensive research which has been published in a reputable scholarly journal. Otherwise he's just trying to promote his business by feeding off the gullable.

This. Cardio is an important component of fitness (along with strength, flexibility).